Preformed dental articles are used extensively in restorative dentistry, which is an important market in the dental industry. In one example, tooth repair with temporary and permanent dental articles such as preformed crowns or bridges, is a common procedure, where the restoration process is expedited by using a preformed dental article in the shape being restored. Conventional technologies use liners, adhesives, pastes, two-part powder/liquid systems, preformed metal or polymer temporary crowns, and preformed ceramic or porcelain/metal permanent crowns. When a customized dental article is desired, multiple visits to a dentist are often required with such conventional technologies.
Adjustments to the preformed metal and polymer crowns can be made by removing material at the crown margin to obtain a desired crown length. Metal crowns may also be crimped at the cervical region to obtain good marginal adaptation. Modification of other crown dimensions, however, such as interproximal distances, crown anatomy, etc. are not performed because the materials used in the preformed crowns are not amenable to shape adjustment by the practitioner. As a result, these crowns are offered in a very large number of sizes, typically 36 or more for either the posterior or anterior teeth, to sufficiently cover the range of conditions encountered in a dental practice.
Hardenable dental materials, which are malleable and, thereby, customizable, have been developed to address some of these issues. For example, PROTEMP crowns are available from 3M ESPE, St. Paul, Minn.
With these advances and a growing interest in customizable preformed dental articles, there is a continuing need for improved customizable preformed dental articles and for a broader range of such customizable preformed dental articles.